Graham turned up on Saturday with plenty of old wood, for shuttering, he explained, strapped to his bike. Then he went back for bits of old metal, for reinforcing, including an old music stand he had found on the dump. Quickly, he made good the wall round the open space where the french windows were to go, cleaning off and using the old red bricks which had come out of the gap. Then he fixed shuttering into position over the hole in the wall and showed us how to mix the concrete on the mill floor. As that was already concrete we just had to wash it down afterwards, he explained.

Peter and I took it in turns to mix, fill an old metal bucket and pass it up to Graham, no mean task, who assembled the lintel over what was to be our route into the garden. We must have borrowed Bob’s step-ladder. Eventually it was finished and left to go off.

“Tomorrow we’ll do the one over what is going to be the west window under the ladder that goes upstairs,” said Graham.

“Wouldn’t it be better to make it on the floor next to the wall and then lift it into position?” said Peter. “The curve must be the same.” It certainly had been hard work and a difficult job making the first one in situ, so Graham agreed.

On Sunday newspaper was laid down on the floor close to the wall, and a little shuttering nailed together; not much was needed. Then Peter and Graham mixed the concrete and poured it in. It certainly was easier.

“Now that’ll have a week to go off nicely,” Graham said. Again he carefully swept up and removed any stray nails before he went home.

He accepted a little, a very little money for his work. Indeed it was a constant struggle to pay him. “Call it a couple of hours,” he would say. “I was drinking tea and talking most of the time.” And indeed he could talk. We were to find that he was a terrible gossip, but his remarks were never malicious. He just wanted to share his constant astonishment at how folk are!

So we got on with our lives and, eventually, next Saturday morning arrived, and so did Graham, bright and early. He set to on the job of removing unwashed bricks and throwing them outside the mill – mixed up some mortar, scooped it onto a board, and started to make the opening good. By the time it looked like an opening for a window and not a nasty accident, we needed light refreshment – in the case of Graham and Peter a large mug of tea with plenty of sugar. Now came the time to fit the lintel into position.